Usher said he doesn’t have “anything negative” to say about Sean “Diddy” Combs, and instead is choosing to remember Combs’ legacy and his “valuable contributions” rather than the abuse allegations that surround the Bad Boy mogul.
The Confessions singer spoke at length to Forbes about his feelings toward his former mentor, whom he lived with as a teenager in New York during the recording of his self-titled debut album in 1994.
Since November 2023, Combs has been engulfed by accusations of sexual assault and physical violence after his ex-girlfriend the singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura sued him, which led to more than 50 similar civil lawsuits and a federal sex-trafficking trial against the music executive. Combs has denied all accusations of sexual assault, and last summer was acquitted of sex-trafficking charges, but was convicted on lesser prostitution charges. He is currently appealing the conviction while serving a four-year prison sentence.
In last week’s episode of The Enterprise Zone, interviewer Jabari Young asked Usher what was the first word that came to mind when he listed a number of Usher’s music industry influences, friends and mentors, including Jermaine Dupri, L.A. Reid, Babyface, Pebbles, and Lil Jon. When it came to Combs, Usher took a beat and responded “legacy.”
“In many ways, I think certain people are prosecuted and maybe not recognized for the greatness that they offer,” Usher explained, hedging that his viewpoint might be considered controversial. “I don’t have anything negative to say about Sean Combs because my experience was not what the world has seen, and how he’s been misrepresented.”
Usher said that he was able to seperate Combs’ own admittance to domestic violence in his past relationships and the sexual assault allegations surrounding him — noting that people have “flaws” — because of the pathway Combs was able to provide for Black musicians and businesspeople.
“I’m not saying that every man is perfect. I’m not saying that all of us don’t have flaws,” Usher added. “But I can’t with any sense of humanity not recognize the valuable contributions that this man made for us as Black entrepreneurs, for us as businessmen, for us as people who have transitioned culture and ideas into something that’s tangible. So many people benefitted from what he created and I acknowledge that.”
Usher said he puts respect on Combs’ name “because I realized that what I learned as a businessman before I even understood what business was came as a result of seeing the incredible things that he was able to do and the way that he positioned himself as a businessman.”
During Combs’ high-profile federal criminal trial last summer, his attorneys readily admitted Combs was physically violent with Ventura during the course of their decade-long relationship. “We own the domestic violence,” Combs’ defense attorney Marc Agnifilo told jurors in his closing arguments. “It happened.”
Over four days of testimony, Ventura detailed the “too many [times] to count” that Combs kicked, punched, dragged, and stomped on her, and surveillance video was shown of Combs stomping and dragging Ventura inside a hotel in 2016.
Former Danity Kane and Diddy-Dirty Money member Dawn Richard testified during the trial that during an industry dinner in 2010, Usher was present when Combs was arguing with Ventura before Combs punched his girlfriend in the stomach and sent her out of the room.
Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny in a split image
Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny Dealt With Trump Quietly. It’s a Smart Move
Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny are both major superstars — and they’ve shared some parallels in their careers and discographies for several years. Now, they’re even using the same playbook to deal with taunts and baiting from Donald Trump and the White House’s social media teams.
Since Trump took office during his second term, he and his administration have been using social media as part of their communication strategy. The propaganda-like, rage-bait-style clips often lean into internet culture and use popular music to make light of Trump’s most egregious actions, like his immigration policy and war-hungry foreign policy.
Olivia Rodrigo, Katy Perry, Ariana Grande, and Noah Kahan are just some of the artists who have had their music used in these videos without their permission — and vehemently spoken out against these actions and against the president. In the past couple of weeks, the Trump administration seems to have wanted to provoke a response from two of the world’s biggest superstars: Bad Bunny and Swift.
On July 30, the official White House TikTok used “La Mudanza” for a particularly tone-deaf video about immigration that celebrated the number of deportations under Trump. A week later, a video with text that said, “mood because it’s August and Donald Trump is your president” set to Swift’s “August” was uploaded by Team Trump, the president’s official campaign account. The caption was an overt provocation: “I’m sure Taylor Swift is going to be super excited we used her song,” it read. Days later, another clip from the same account featured an edited version of Swift’s Red album cover with text that said, “Did you know that Taylor Swift wrote a whole album about the color of the Republican Party?”
Neither musician has released a public statement denouncing the use of their music in Trump’s videos. Instead, two of the world’s biggest superstars quietly removed their songs from videos posted by official accounts linked to the Trump administration. (It’s unclear if there is a TikTok feature that allows selective sound muting on videos or if the respective teams reached out to the social media accounts directly.) The tracks are still available for other TikTok accounts to use in their videos, making their silence a pointed — and smart — approach. Both Bad Bunny and Swift seem to recognize the president and his administration’s tactics for what they are: antagonizing moves that keep the Trump conversation centered on his social media presence, rather than his actual policies and the harm they commit. Why would they add their star power to the conversation and stoke the flames when that’s exactly what the White House appears to want?
Some people argue that celebrities should wield their platform to denounce Trump at any chance if they are truly not politically aligned with his MAGA politics. But because they hold so much influence, these superstars need to be strategic about how they use it.
Benito, in particular, has been incredibly outspoken about his politics. He stood on two of the world’s biggest stages and used them to voice pro-immigration messages, denounce Trump’s policies, and highlight Puerto Rico as it struggles with the effects of U.S. imperialism. “Before I say, ‘Thank God,’ I’m going to say, ‘ICE out,’” the Puerto Rican superstar said at the 2026 Grammys. “We’re not savage. We’re not animals. We’re not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans.” Last summer, Bad Bunny’s music video for “Nuevayol” used a voice that sounds a lot like the president’s to deliver a pro-immigrant message. “I made a mistake. I want to apologize to the immigrants in America. I mean the United States. I know America is the whole continent,” the voice bellows out of a Seventies radio toward the end of the video. “I want to say that this country is nothing without the immigrants.”
Fans were convinced that Benito would speak out against the official White House TikTok account when it used one of his most political songs. But commenting on the video would only blow up the discussion for a wider audience. When Rodrigo, Perry, Grande, and Kahan made public comments, spokespeople for the White House used the opportunity to spread hateful rhetoric. “We’ll say this one last time: what’s actually barbaric, inhumane, and heinous are the criminal illegal aliens who have injured and murdered innocent American citizens,” Abigail Jackson said in a statement to Rolling Stone after Grande spoke out. It’s the antithesis of what Benito said during his Grammys speech this year: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”
Swift, on the other hand, has dealt with Trump and the right-wing’s instigations for years, each one crazier than the last. The TikTok videos from the last week aren’t even the first time that the administration has used the singer’s music for social media videos. Last fall, both the official White House TikTok account and Team Trump used songs from Swift’s then-newly released The Life of a Showgirl in separate videos. One plucked the lyrics “pledge allegiance to your hands, your team, your vibes” from “The Fate of Ophelia” to celebrate Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and the first and second ladies. The others boasted about Trump by using “Father Figure” and honored Melania Trump’s Patriot of the Year award with “Opalite.” As of Aug. 10, the audio is not available under all of these specific videos.
The pop superstar has not spoken publicly about these instances. But she has made her disdain for Trump clear. Over the years, Swift has criticized Trump’s autocratic leadership. On X, she wrote “we will vote you out” and endorsed Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the 2020 and 2024 elections, respectively. In 2019, Swift told Rolling Stone, “There’s literally nothing worse than white supremacy. It’s repulsive. There should be no place for it.”
Even though she’s shared her liberal viewpoints on issues like abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, and racial inequality, Swift has still faced ridiculous claims of being MAGA-aligned and folding in right-wing dog whistles to her music — and that’s without ever naming Trump. If Swift were to make a statement about her music being used by the Trump administration, the attention-seeking president would absolutely revel in it. Getting Swift and Bad Bunny to weigh in is exactly the type of headline grabber he would love to draw attention from his remarkably unpopular presidency.